The guild had managed to travel a fair distance the remainder of the day after their short meeting, and it was now the first night with Nora as part of Draconian's Tavern.
After the meeting had ended, Roesia had gone straight into her room to set their new course while Nora asked everyone to gather outside late in the night to start their training. Since Elly had already given her consent to have the goddess train them, they all agreed and went about their own business wondering why begin so late. Selt immediately opted out of said training of course.
Yvain for his part went to bed with Nora as she was still dead tired from their coupling. He was too excited though, both due to the redhead in his arms and the coming training and remained awake the entire time.
Currently everyone was outside in a circle surrounded by dark forest, using the carriage as a light source for their immediate surroundings.
"Do we really have to do this now?" asked a sleepy Roesia.
"This is the best time to do it," Nora said. Her tone of voice had changed to one suitable for stern teaching, but the loose-fitting clothes she was wearing detracted a bit from the image. That didn't bother to Yvain though. The new teacher-like impression she exhumed was already enough to give him problems concentrating.
"I finished reading the handbook," Nora said as she set down a slim leather-bound book Nelimir had lent her which contained the information all starting guilds needed to learn, curtesy of Cosmos.
"Elly, allow me to ask gain. You can use starlight, correct?" Nora asked.
Elly was wearing her usual combat equipment, just as she always did during training, while lying face-up on the cold grass with her legs crossed and hands on the back of her head.
"I can," she said.
"But only once a day?"
"That's right."
"Do you know what your rank is?"
Nora went through a similar line of questioning to when she and Yvain first met. Elly gave her the same answers he had given.
"I can only come to the conclusion that you and Yvain are an anomaly," Nora finally said. "The contents of this book contain half-truths and half-falsehoods. Enough so you get an idea of how starlight works, but not enough that you can effectively gather it or use it."
"Is that why Roesia and I have been stuck in place for so long?" Nelimir asked.
"Roesia is a special case," Nora said and looked at the sorceress. "She hasn't been stuck exactly. She might be the biggest anomaly out of everyone here; bar Selt."
The girl in question looked at Nora in confusion.
"Have you received any formal training on how to use magic?" Nora asked.
"I've only heard of it," Roesia said with a shrug.
"Yet I saw you shoot water out of your fingertips yesterday," Nora said. "Can you explain how you did that in detail?"
"I just pulled it in from the air around us and released it, it's not too different from manipulating starlight for experiments," Roesia said. "But it doesn't serve any purpose other than playing pranks and parlor tricks."
Nora cocked her head, genuine bewilderment painting her features.
"What if you found yourself without water and dehydrated?" she asked.
Somehow none of them had thought of the possibility. It was such an obvious idea, yet Roesia and Nelimir looked as surprised as Yvain felt. But if one thought about it, ever since the group left their hometown they had never gone through any dire straits. Their home was equipped with nigh luxurious amenities and whichever items they ran out of could just be restocked at a nearby town.
We really are a pampered bunch,
Yvain thought.
Nora waved away her own words.
"That's beside the point. What you managed to do is convert starlight into an element," she said as she walked to the middle of the clearing the group was sitting around. "And regardless of its current combative use, you managed to apply it as a force. Doing all of that requires several levels of rigorous knowledge and training at the hands of a master that far surpasses what physical combatants need," Nora's expression turned apologetic, "and something that is beyond my own capabilities, unfortunately."
Was she saying Roesia was a genius? The idea barely affected Yvain as he was used to the sorceress being beyond the group in terms of intelligence and achievements. He also had no interest in magic or magical contraptions. The competitive spark that would ignite inside him when it came to his master or Nora was not there with the sorceress.
"What I
can
teach you though, and everyone else here, is the proper method to start your journey in mastering the gathering of starlight," Nora said and beckoned Yvain.
Even with the loose clothes her curves were visible. It was impossible to stop himself from eating them up with his eyes as he stood and approached her.
Nora was reciprocating his hunger, but she was much more subtle.
Once they were face to face, she put a hand on his chest and caressed it.
"Take the position you normally do when absorbing starlight," she said softly.
Yvain looked at her for a beat longer than necessary, debating on at least hugging her, but the eyes that were on the pair held him in place. So instead, he sat down in a cross-legged position and straightening his back.
With hands interlaced, he looked to her for further guidance.
Nora reigned in her composure and spoke to the group, "The biggest problem you all face is that you don't know what you're supposed to look for, nor do you have the proper method to conduct a search," she said. "What requires a precise touch, you strike with no perceivable intent."
Nora sat down in front of Yvain and grabbed his head in her hands as if holding a ball, "I want you to close your eyes and concentrate on the starlight I'm going to send through you."
Yvain did as told and, with darkness covering his vision, Nora's hands and voice gained a sharper focus.
"First, follow its trajectory," she said.
Before Yvain could ask her what she meant, a current of energy entered his head which immediately cleared all drowsiness away and slid down through the rest of his body.
His consciousness was abruptly pulled with said current. It was as if he suddenly fell back into a void; his body now dropping through a dark limbo where weirdly enough there was no wind.
Yvain's breath and heartbeat quickened. His body, expecting a violent crash with an invisible ground, flailed around trying to grab on to a ledge that wasn't there--inadvertently making it spin in place. His head whipped around trying to figure out where he was, but all that was surrounding him was the color black.
He fell, and fell, and fell with no perceivable end. It was as such that enough time passed for him to right his body and somewhat calm himself down.
In the darkness many questions rushed through his head. Where he was, how he got there, what he was supposed to do, how he could get out of his current situation.
But before hitting on any type of answers or ground, Yvain slowed down from his mad descent and was gently set over what felt like a body of water. He was then forced into the same stance he had taken before and propelled forward against his will.
All around him a river of stars began to paint itself against the black of the tunnel he apparently was now traveling through.
"Try to remember the patterns I'll show you." Nora's voice came as echoes from somewhere far away.
Yvain's slight anxiety didn't match the calmness of it; an anxiety made worse when he tried to respond and no voice came out.
Not only was the change of pace abrupt, but he was not used to not being in control of his body. It made him feel powerless. And such a realization made him uncomfortable. Even when training with his master in his younger years, he had never been subjected to this type of helplessness.
Yet he knew Nora would never hurt him, so he at least managed to focus on how she moved his body while his eyes darted from side to side, trying to use the beauty of the changes going on around him to reach some sense of tranquility and acceptance.
Yvain attempted to commit to memory all the movements Nora showed him. Every turn, loop, fall, and ascent. There were countless changes, too many to learn in a single day as a matter of fact.
However, all the movements felt familiar to Yvain, like he had done them a million times before. Every time the amount of information he had to commit to memory became too overwhelming his mind would release a trap door that would flush all the details into his subconscious. That information would then present itself as always having been there, waiting for him to remember.
Inside the familiarity there were vast differences too. The same way two humans differed but came from the same pelt, these movements had an inherent nature that would never change but allowed for molding.
It brought a question to the forefront of Yvain's mind. What Nora was showing him was obviously a tested training regimen, could this mean, then, that it was just one of many?
The thought didn't have a solid basis to come from, but he felt a strong conviction behind it. That conviction took him down memories of his past training. Two in particular stood out from the rest--the time he created 'Nightfall' and Cosmos's method of starlight absorption. An ability created by a complete novice, and an incomplete training regimen that made the creation of such a skill possible. Wouldn't that mean that what mattered was the how to reach the goal, and not the goal itself? By definition, could he not create his own method? The ideas filled Yvain with breathless anticipation. For now though he would focus on learning what was in front of him, as he lacked a solid base of understanding to branch out from.
